Stranger than Fiction

Inspiration for my books typically comes from real-life experiences: my own, from history, or friends’ stories. Reality, however, can be stranger than fiction. Just because something happens doesn’t mean an author can write about it. Some events, situations, or occurrences wouldn’t be considered believable to readers. The challenge is that there isn’t a defined list of what is deemed realistic and what isn’t. For example, in 2020, here are a few real happenings that authors (other than Science-fiction) probably couldn’t get away with writing:

• Wild animals take over the cities. Due to the pandemic lockdowns, wild animals started to wander into the cities. Maybe they decided it was high time to check out those tourist spots.
• The Pentagon releases information on the existence of UFOs. This one speaks for itself.
• The most popular flight is a flight to nowhere. Qantas Airlines in Australia offers a flight with no destination for people who want to travel during Covid but not stop anywhere. The flight sold out in record time.
• A star goes missing. Usually, stars go out with the bang of a supernova, but a star that Astronomers had been tracking for two decades suddenly just disappeared.
• A waterfall runs in reverse. South of Sidney, Australia, high wind gusts up to 75 mph caused waterfalls to cascade up instead of down. 

The first thing we try to do when dealing with bizarre events is to rationalize them. We take something extraordinary and break it into ordinary pieces so that our brain can make sense of it, but we can lose grasp of the astonishing happening in the process. Often, we do the same thing for God, but God refuses to be neatly categorized in a box or classified into specific acceptable social norms. In the Bible, it seems as if God went out of His way just to show us His power has no limits. Take a look at some Biblical examples:

• God tells Noah to build a boat because it’s going to rain for forty days. This doesn’t sound unbelievable until you think about the fact it had never rained. Before the flood, water came up from the ground. Noah probably had to ask God, “What’s a boat?” and then “What’s rain?”
• Jesus spits in the mud and rubs it over the blind man’s eyes, who then regains his sight. I know the blind man couldn’t see what Jesus was doing, but I’m sure he heard Jesus spit on the mud and then felt it smeared over his eyes.
• A young boy with only a slingshot went up against a nine-foot, armor-wearing, sword and shield-wielding giant. (This is a mother’s worst nightmare. David’s mother is only referenced briefly in Psalm 86, but thank God she wasn’t present at what can only be called a miraculous underdog showdown.)
• Jonah was swallowed by a whale and then spit out on the shore. Supposedly, this just recently happened to lobster diver here in Massachusetts, too. However, it was only for a few seconds, and he had on scuba gear and a buddy nearby to rescue him. Jonah stayed in the whale’s belly for three whole days.

Why are we waiting on the natural when God can do the supernatural? If God works in mysterious ways, then why do we confine Him to the physical? Are our prayers small when they should be audacious? Do we expect God to do things our way when His way is perfect and remarkable? Are we so afraid to appear foolish that we’re blocking God’s miracle?

Perhaps we need to suspend our disbelief and grow in our faith. Dare to pray for the impossible. Go head and ask the outlandish request. Even the impossible is possible with God.

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can Ssay to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” – Matthew 17:20

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